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Kenner The Real Ghostbusters Toy Line
The Real Ghostbusters Toy line was created by Kenner from 1986 through 1991. It was mostly related to the Animated Series, however the Ecto-1a and ECTO-Charger where both related to the Ghostbusters II Film. Also, Filmations Ghostbusters had a line of Toys as well being produced by Tyco. Overview The Kenner line of Real Ghostbusters action figures was the most known of the toy lines and hit shelves in January of 1987 and continued being made ans sold til the spring of 1991. It had ten waves of toys (based on card rearrangements) with at least one more planned. Finger Pops In 1979, Kenner released "Finger Pops", which were foam cylinders that could be projected in the air. A similar type of product to Nerf like foam products, it was Kenner's answer to Parker Brothers Nerf line. The concept was brought to the Real Ghostbusters line with "Finger Pop Fiends", which along with having the same function also share the name "Finger Pops". Also in 1979, Kenner released a second toy in the line called "Finger Pops Popper". This item as well was in many regards a precursor to the "GhostPopper", which would be able to fire foam pops. GhostPopper also shares the name Popper and refers to the ammo as "ghostpops" or "pops". The foam pops were also used with the "ECTO Popper & ECTO-Goggles", which uses the same idea and adds temporary storage on the goggles. List of Toys The list is based on packaging back cards of the '''American version line'. For releases in other countries/regions please see the Foreign Market Releases section of this article. Sometimes the toy was released with other toys but wasn't included on the back card, in which case its included but noted. A few items were released that didn't have back cards and were not shown included with a wave. Educated guesses are used in those cases.'' First Wave It is believed that the first wave toys were released during the Christmas season in 1986, mostly to fulfill layaway orders. Officially, the first advertisements appeared, done by Toy's R Us in the news papers around the end of January 1987. The toy line first wave first printing is believed to have been all the figures, but not the Ghost Zapper or the Plush Toys. Second printing which was released with additions from wave 2 was done sometime in the spring of 1987. A third printing was done for the Christmas season of 1987. The Action Ghost "Green Ghost" incorrectly was printed in the first and second printing with item number #81020. The toy was given the correct item number on the third pressing. Second Wave The second wave was released sometime in the spring of 1987. The Action Ghost assortment (started wave 1) had additions of three ghost action figures. A second pressing for the three Action Ghosts was made for the Christmas season on 1987. Third Wave The third wave was likely first released to fulfill layaway orders in the Christmas season of 1987. The first public promotion for the wave didn't happen til mid January of 1988. Initially Fright Feature Janine Melnitz was not released as she wasn't listed on back of card. She was later released in the fourth wave. The three Mini Ghost toy sets were released with their assortment number of "80400" mistakenly printed on the front of the card as the item number. All three also share the same bar code on the back. The Canada line printed corrected item numbers. Fourth Wave Fifth Wave Sixth Wave Some sites merge this wave with five or seven, however going by packaging cards it is a clearly released batch of toys during spring/summer of 1989. Seventh Wave Eighth Wave Ninth Wave Tenth Wave Unreleased Toys *Nutrona Blaster In development in wave 1/wave 2 *Ecto Glow Copter *Firetruck *Egon's Lab *Backpack Heroes: Egon Spengler *Backpack Heroes: Ray Stantz *Backpack Heroes: Peter Venkman *Backpack Heroes: Winston Zeddmore *Ghost Blaster *Slimerizer Foreign Market Releases *The Real Ghostbusters made by Kenner for the country of Canada. It is bilingual and has both English and French language on it. *Auriken The Real Ghostbusters Toy Line made by Kenner, but relabeled by Auriken for release in Mexico. *Caça-Fantasmas made by Estrela for the country of Brazil. *The Real Ghostbusters made by Jocsa for the country of Argentina. *The Real Ghostbusters made by Kenner for the United Kingdom. *S.O.S Fantômes, Belgium, and Netherlands The Real Ghostbuster Toy Line made by Kenner for the countries of France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. *The Real Ghostbusters made by Kenner for the country of Germany. *Gli Acchiappafantasmi made by Kenner for the country of Italy. Some toys from America, Canada, and the UK lines were imported to Portugal and Australia. The ones that can be identified have import stickers. Trivia *Toy Weapons such as GhostZapper and GhostPopper have stylized names using CamelCase. A practice of writing compound words or phrases such that each word or abbreviation begins with a capital letter. *On pages three to five of Ghostbusters Volume 2 Issue #16, the designs of the Fright Features Ghostbusters are used as the looks of the future versions of the Ghostbusters. Also See *Ghostbusters Toys *Mattel Ghostbusters Toy Line *Diamond Select MiniMate Ghostbusters Toy Line *Trendmasters Extreme Ghostbusters Toy Line External links *Ghostbusters Toy Archive *Ghostbusters Collector *EctoContainment Gallery Finger Pops Related Images FingerPopsbyKennersc01.png|Front of packaging for Finger Pops released by Kenner in 1979. This package was a later produced copy promoting the use of the Finger Pops Popper. FingerPopsbyKennersc02.png|Back of packaging for Finger Pops released by Kenner in 1979. This package was a later produced copy promoting the use of the Finger Pops Popper. FingerPopsPopperbyKennersc01.png|Front of packaging for Finger Pops Popper released by Kenner in 1979. Foreign Market Related Images UKYear1987PosterKennersc01.png|Foreign Market UK poster for 1987 year. UKYear1990PosterKennersc01.png|Foreign Market UK poster for 1990 year. IDW Comics KennerFrightFeaturesIDWV2Issue16.jpg|As seen in Ghostbusters Volume 2 Issue #16 Category:Merchandise Toy Lines Category:Kenner